virgin viewing: lost, season 1, episode 4

right off the bat, i think i’ll like this episode, because (a) the title is “walkabout” and (b) we start with this shot, of Locke, right after the crash, prone, dazed, and presumably the central character for flashbacks. SCORE.

guh, so much sand everywhere

we see him sit up, put on a shoe, and look around. then it’s back to the beach, where Vincent is barking madly at something (someone?) crashing about in the plane. if there are zombies, i quit. Sawyer, Jack, Kate, and Charlie approach with flashlights (and no weapons, because…stupid), and when Sawyer turns up the big flashlight, the thing in the plane goes all snorty and everyone runs and Hurley wins my love again by sighing and saying, “oh crud, now what?” before booking it. the three boars (because they weren’t zombies) rush to the jungle, and Locke identifies them with a smile. i assume he’s going to hunt them.

Charlie’s injuries (he fell, i think) are tended to while Jack is all “we need to burn the bodies” and Kate is all “they’re people, Jack”, which, yes, and it’s crude, but…think of it like cremation.he says that they’ll light the fuselage aflame the next day at sundown. i’m not trying to be snippy, but why is he in charge of these decisions? or rather, this select group? i guess they haven’t been there long enough for a council, but it seems like he just decides what he wants. Sayid works on an antenna to help him find the French woman’s camp, where it is assumed that there will be a power source.

suddenly, a fight! Hurley v. Sawyer: battle over peanuts. they’re out of food completely. this is Sawyer’s sulking face:

he really is unfairly attractive

as he asks about how they’ll find food, Locke throws this into the equation, literally:

not the best way to announce yourself, Locke

“we hunt” – see, told you. he casually informs the group that there are razorback boars on the island, and that the three little pigs (heh) on the beach the night before were piglets – only 100-150 pounds. jeebus. Locke then shows that he apparently checked a kitchen’s worth of hunting knives, begging Hurley’s question: who is this guy?

we flashback to Locke, elsewhere in time, getting a phone call with orders for a mission of some sort. his call is interrupted by a douchey looking guy in a suit, leaning over his cubicle wall to tell him to stop taking personal calls. hmm.

Kate has offered to go help “distract the piglet” so that Locke can kill it. Jack asks what he real motive is – and we find out she’s bringing Sayid’s antenna in order to help him find the source of the signal.

i enjoy Sun’s side-eye as Michael makes a fool out of himself speaking as s-l-o-w-l-y as possible to her, asking her to watch his son.

this just amuses me a lot

Claire approaches Jack with a wedding planning binder from a couple who was a few rows behind her – and suggests a memorial service for the people who died.

Boone notices that the woman who had been next to Jack on the plane has been sitting solo, facing the ocean, for some time. his sister’s response when he says someone should check on her? “i nominate you, captain america”.

to her credit, she chose a great place to sit and think about stuff

the hunting party, meanwhile, gets put on their rears by Mama Boar – Michael’s leg is hurt, and Locke seems distinctly concerned about his legs. and so, of course, we flash back.

such a depressing job he has. why is everything green?

Locke is playing…Risk? WarBoard? i am sorry, i don’t know what game this actually is (obviously I made up that second one). whatever. he’s playing a strategy game in the breakroom at his office (i think this was the “mission” he was discussing on the phone). his douchey boss mocks him for not having any real military experience, for wanting to go on a walkabout in Australia (which he determined by stealing a brochure from Locke’s desk…), etc. the guy tells him he can’t do any of these things he wants to do, to which Locke retorts “Norman Croucher – double amputee, no legs, he climbed to the top of Mount Everest…”. we also hear about “Helen”, but it’s not clear who she is. but it is clear that Locke does not want to be told “you can’t”.

back on the island, Locke gets up, and calls Kate “Helen” by accident. he tells her to take Michael back to camp, and he sets off to hunt the boar on his own, telling Kate “don’t tell me what i can’t do” as he does so.

in an amusing side story, Shannon has sweet-talked Charlie into helping her fish (she told her brother she totally could, and Charlie swore to her he could, too), and so Charlie has Hurley standing in the ocean with a homemade spear, stabbing vainly at the water.

Claire finds an envelope of photos belonging to Sayid, and we watch as he looks through them, smiling at the sight of the woman in the photos.

back in Locke’s previous life, he sits on his bed, talking to Helen by phone, telling her about telling his boss off and his upcoming trip to Australia – for which he purchased two tickets. which is when, womp womp, she tells him she’s not allowed meet customers. omg. is Helen working for a phone sex company? awkward.

Kate scales a tree to place the antenna:

we are led to believe it’s a staggeringly tall tree and that Kate has mad tree skills

while up there, the Crashy Monster does it’s thing, aiming towards where they left Locke – who stands in a field, looking into the jungle, probably wondering if maybe this boar hunt was a bad idea. and we go to commercial knowing that he has seen Crashy Monster in…person?

the hunting party – without Locke – returns to the beach. Rose tells Jack that she thinks her husband – and the passengers from the tail of the plane – are still alive. as she walks off, Jack looks up to see:

this piqued my interest. who is the besuited gentleman?

moments later, talking to Kate, he sees the man again, and rushes off to follow him. instead, he finds Locke, covered in blood and lugging what appears to be Mama Boar.

on the beach, Claire reads the names of the deceased before they set the fuselage on fire. Locke lies to Michael and tells him he never saw the monster. why would he lie about that? power?

we see Locke, back in Australia, arguing with the organizer of his walkabout – who accuses him of misrepresenting himself in his application for the tour. we see, as the man walks out, that Locke was in a wheelchair (the one everyone’s been using for carrying things about on the island) – and ugh, this scene makes me super sad. on the beach, he smiles as he looks at the wheelchair, sitting near the flames licking the plane.

question: if he was in a chair for four years, would he necessarily be that strong immediately upon regaining use of his legs? because seems to me, even with physical therapy, he’d need some assistance getting around…